Dinosaur Party -4yr- Kleenex Box Dinosaur Feet

Dinosaur Party  For my twin sons' 4th birthday party we held a party with a dinosaur theme. 

The invitations were taken from the internet and were a picture of a dinosaur, volcano, jungle, etc. "Go back to the land of dinosaurs, and the rest of the party patter. 


Decorations were green streamers hanging from the doorways (jungle concept), pictures of dinosaurs around the party room and my sons' collections of dinosaurs on top of the hanging light in the dining room (it's a flat light so it was easy to place them there). 

When the kids came the first activity was decorate the dinosaurs.  I had cut out dinosaur shapes from foam craft and put glitter glue, foam shapes, puffy paint, etc. out.  Kids each decorated 2 or 3 shapes.  Since the shapes were still wet by the time the kids left, I kept them overnight to dry and glued a magnet on them so they could be fridge magnets, and then delivered them the next day.  (All kids live on my street so not a big problem) 

Once finished we started the games.  The first one was Dino Stomp, Bone Drop, Egg Hatch.  They were separated into two teams.  Each team had a mix of kids since they ranged in age from 3 to 12 and the older kids helped the younger ones. 

The first person on each team put on dinosaur feet (Kleenex boxes painted green for one team and blue for the other with felt  "claws" glued on the top), and was given a dinosaur bone (rawhide dog bone).  They had to stomp to a bucket, drop the bone into the bucket, bring the feet back to the next child, then go and "hatch their dino egg" (sit on balloon).  First team to hatch all their eggs won, but in actuality I had only partially blown up the balloons making it very difficult to "hatch" the egg, therefore no team really won. 

Kids were fine with that since they had a great time trying to break their balloon.  Next game was Hunt for the Dino Eggs.  Eggs were made from coffee ground dough ( 2 1/2  cups used coffee grounds, 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup sand, enough water so the mix holds together) and each held a small plastic dinosaur.  (The eggs were made about 3 weeks in advance and needed that much time to thoroughly dry).  Once kids found their egg they were given small hammers and cracked them open to find their dinosaurs inside. 

We then had cake and ice cream.  Since they are twins I always have two cakes (one for each). One cake was a volcano cake (cake in bundt pan, turned upside down, frosted with chocolate icing with red/orange icing dripping down for the lava.  Scattered around the edge were small plastic dinosaurs and palm trees).  The other cake was shaped like a stegosaurus.  Most kids chose to have a piece of both as they wanted a piece of dinosaur with their volcano.  (I usually don't spend a lot of money on themed plates etc. but do try to get solid coloured plates to go with the theme.)  I had green plates and napkins, black tablecloth and  red cups.) 

Next we opened gifts and then came the piñata.  I'd made one out of papier mache in the shape of a dinosaur, filled it with dino stickers, glow in dark dinos, gum, etc.  And last were the loot bags which were brown lunch bags stamped with pictures of dinosaurs and filled with more dino themed stuff. 

Both my sons were involved in much of the prep work (painted dino feet, stamped loot bags, "helped" make the piñata, hung up the decorations with me, located all their small hammers, dinosaurs, etc.) so they were really excited by the time the party actually took place. 

The mom of the 3 year old and my helper  (kids previous nanny) also commented on how creative and fun the party was.  I guess the best compliment was that at the end of the party most of the kids stayed longer than they had to (all live on our street, walking distance) because they said they didn't want it to end. 

The party lasted 2 hours.  Thank you notes were decorated with dinosaur clip art in keeping with the dino theme.  It was a really fun party to have, very inexpensive (love those dollar stores) and easy to host.